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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Wales Considering U.S. Fixture, Will Not Play Eagles

Wales are planning on playing a fixture in the United States net summer but it won't come against the Eagles. Reports out of Wales have Welsh Rugby Union leaders looking at adding a third fixture to compliment their two fixtures in Argentina. However, they made it very clear that the extra fixture will not come against the Eagles as they are not deemed "a proper side" by WRU Chief Executive Martyn Phillips. "It wouldn't be against America. We would play another side, a proper side in the U.S, the week before Argentina, on June 2." Ouch. It's not wonder that the Welsh don't have many friends among Tier II nations.

Even without playing the Eagles a June 2nd date is going to run into problems. Two of the biggest events on the U.S. domestic calendar at that weekend with the Collegiate Rugby Championship and the Club Championships. That is going to take a lot of the typical attention away. It could all come down to who they are playing. As things stand it would have to be an opponent like New Zealand, Ireland, or South Africa. New Zealand teams are involved in Super Rugby fixtures that weekend while South African teams are not. However, both New Zealand and South Africa, along with Australia, are hosting a series in June so it seems unlikely that they are going to travel all the way to the U.S. to play Wales before heading back. Ireland makes the most sense. The Pro 14 final is the weekend before and they could meet up in the U.S. before going to Australia. Maybe they could play a side like the Barbarians but even still it seems like folks at the WRU are underestimating the realities of the U.S. market.

The fact of the matter is that the Men's USA Eagles are not a "proper" side for a proud tier 1 rugby nation to be playing, plain and simple. Any of the current top 9 rugby playing nations would beat the Eagles by 100 points if they really wanted to let the dogs out. Who benefits from that? Rugby is THE national sport of Wales so they have every right to select proper opposition. Get a grip, rugby is a Varsity HS sport in only 1 of the 50 states for goodness sakes.

I am sure the millions upon millions of Welsh-Americans will be out to support them. Do you think they will enjoy playing on a municipal park field in front of a crowd that might be evenly split between dogs and humans?